Little Birds: Omakes
by HorizonTheTransient
Summary: A collection of drabbles, sideshows, and non-canonical interludes
1. Intro

Uzume walked out onto the stage, a broad smile on her face. She looked out at the audience, waited for the applause to die down, and began to speak.

"Good evening, fuckfaces. I'm Uzume, and I'm filling in for Horizon tonight." she said cheerily. "See, he doesn't have faith in his audience to piece together a coherent picture of how magic works just by the explanations in the main story. That's where I come i-"

"Oi!" Horizon shouted, bursting onto the stage. They wore a white button-up shirt, with the sleeves rolled to their elbows, and a black waistcoat over it. On their legs was a pair of black dress pants. "The fuck you think you're doing here?! Get out! I never authorized this!"

"Yeah you did!" Uzume said, pulling out a rolled up contract. "You signed and stamped this, didn't you?"

"_Anderson…_" Horizon said, clenching their fist. "I'm going to kill that boy."

"Then you wouldn't have a story." Uzume pointed out. "Just a bunch of confused people running around, dealing with things they don't understand, before dying horribly."

"Spoilers!" Horizon yelled. "I told you the plot in confidence!"

"Yeah, but bro managed to put an exemption in there." Uzume said, waggling a finger. "I get to stay like this, even in the main story."

"Oh fuck." Horizon said. "You've lost your Wall. This is bad, this is bad…"

"Don't worry, I won't meta or anything." Uzume promised. "I'll behave. I'll just… ease things along."

"...fuck it, I'm the author." Horizon said, reaching into a pocket. "Amnesia dust!" They punctuated this with a handful of sparkly dust thrown in Uzume's face.

"Ah! Fuck! That stings!" Uzume cried, falling onto her back.

"Okay… I can handle this." Horizon said, their breathing heavy. "Wait. What was I supposed to be doing?"


	2. David's Life Story

Alright, so my full, Chromatic name is David Alexander Anderson of the Black Wind. I am not human. I am what is called a Chromata.

See, there are three general varieties of humans. Normal, baseline humans, who don't have a metaphysical thing one calls a soul, the possession of which gives one magical energy and the potential to do something with it. Next are the Sleepers and Dreamers, who have a soul, but don't have any magical capabilities, aside from slightly enhanced perceptive abilities. The difference between a Sleeper and a Dreamer is that a Dreamer knows what's going on, they know about the metaphysical and Chromata. Sleepers, don't. And last but certainly not least are the Chromata. Some combination of ritual and belief causes the soul to awaken, and we gain magical abilities.

There are powers every Chromata has, as a baseline. If they do not have these abilities, they are an exception, and rather rare. There are minor abilities, which are: superhuman audiovisual and olfactory capabilities; attaining fluency in languages in very brief timespans, such as 10 days for a completely foreign language, or 6 for a language related to one already known; causing birds to speak in any language, even one that isn't known; knowing exactly where you are, and how to get to any location you choose; perceiving the ebb and flow of magic via a simple spell called the Eagle Eyes; intuitive understanding of a certain subject, such as, in my case, ballistic trajectories. Then there are major abilities: control of the wind and general manipulation of air; and enhancement of physical capabilities. Minor abilities require no magical energy. Major abilities do.

There are 5 major varieties of Chromata, myself being a minor variety. The major types are Clear Wind, Blue Wind, Red Wind, Yellow Wind, and Green Wind.

Clear Winds have no special ability, but they are really good with what they have. They do, however, intuitively understand fluid dynamics and meteorology. They also tend to be capricious, unpredictable, and assholish.

Blue Winds have mastery of Water in addition to Wind, and can control biology as a metaphysical consequence. That means body modification, genetic modification, and healing. They have an intuitive understanding of medicine, organic chemistry, genetics, and hydrodynamics. They tend to be wishy-washy, to the point that a solid tenth of them are afflicted with manic-depressive bipolarity. My sibling, Gemini, was this. They were gender-fluid, and would shift between two personas: Apollo, the male persona, who was an aggressive, misogynistic asshole; and Artemis, the female persona, who was a demure, quiet, self-deprecating woman. Both of them were very tall, white, and had long blonde hair.

Yellow Winds command Fire as well as Wind, and can create audiovisual illusions as a result. They can also shoot lightning, if they use a lot of power. Of all major varieties of Chromata, they are the most overtly dangerous, when their combat prowess is coupled with their aggressive and violent nature. Oh, and they come pre-equipped with an understanding of thermodynamics, allowing them to instinctively know how much fire is enough fire. My father, Harry, was a Yellow Wind, and made a name for himself as a mercenary. A crippling leg injury made him retire, along with my mother, who was a military engineer deployed in the same area as him.

Green Winds control Earth and Wind. Power over earth means they can create a material called mythril, which is a catch-all term for any magically altered material. The only common characteristics of all mythril is that the Green Wind who created it can telekinetically control it, and all mythril is completely inert. No chemical reactions at all. This means that mythril clothing is fireproof and acidproof, and will last forever. Green Winds get a free understanding of metallurgy and structural physics. They tend to be very stable people, and make for excellent parents… usually. My mother, Lisa, was a Green Wind, and she was an engineer for the US Military until her honorable discharge, at which point she became a jeweler, making her crafts from tin cans and rocks that were altered to become precious metals and gemstones.

Finally, we have Red Winds. They have powers best described as 'All of the above'. They command a masterful control of all four major elements of Air, Water, Fire, and Earth, at a price: Their powers are not intuitive. They must be taught, by a tutor or by bitter experience, how to use their powers. They are also exceedingly rare: 1 in 50 Chromata are Red Winds, compared to the 2 of 5 that Clear Winds have, or the 1 in 5 that the remaining 3 varieties have. I was originally one of these. But… well, that's not the first story I need to tell you.

I am, among many things, an albino. I have no pigment, anywhere. Not in my eyes, not in my hair, not in my skin. I am very sensitive to light, to the point that, for a large portion of my life, I could not safely leave the house. I grew up without friends, or knowing anyone outside my family. The one time I ventured out of the house before I had any powers, I was accosted by a group of Dreamers who resented Chromata, and I ended the day with a body count of 3 rednecks and 17 carnies. I had also burned down a warehouse, and ruined a rodeo.

Six years later on that day, when I turned 13, I awakened my soul, and discovered my status as a Red Wind

My dad somehow managed to get in contact with an old man named Abraham Cerst, a Red Wind who lived in the Amazon Rainforest, who had agreed to tutor me. Arriving in his mansion, we were immediately split into two groups: me, alone in the basement, and my family, in some other part of the basement. I ran into a pack of magic wolves- yes, those are a thing- and made short work of them with a revolver and some very good shots. Then, because I was hungry, I ate them. Well, one of them. Tasted like rabbit, only a little stringier, and with a little hint of guilt.

I met a girl down there. 16 or so, redhead with a hell of a tan, had fox ears and a tail, named Ruby. She was a Construct, a being created by a Red Wind. Thing is, nobody knows how to make a Construct as sophisticated as Ruby anymore. She wasn't quite as impressive as you, though. Yes, you're a Construct. Yes, you are still a person. No, I do not see Constructs as inferiors to Chromata. Please allow me to finish the story.

Ruby wasn't actually unique; there was apparently a bunch of Constructs like her, all descended from a common ancestor from before the Great Undoing. Anyways, she had some abilities that were inherent to her people. She had a command of fire much like a Yellow Wind, along with the illusions, and she could switch between a mostly human form to a fox form. She was apparently was there to raid Cerst's stash of magic items, and I had her lead me there. Along the way, she mentioned that her people go into heat once a year-only the females, males don't go into heat as a general biological rule- and that she was due for her first time.

Somehow, she managed to get me on my back, and… well, I don't wanna talk about it. Suffice to say I'm not a virgin. Anyways… urgh… The two of us got to the vault, she opened it up, and I was exposed to the horrid fucking thing that is the Mirror of Truth. It laid my soul bare before me, and showed me what I truly was: empty, a mirror held against whoever I'm near. Ruby accidentally twisted the knife further, telling me that mirrors were a symbol of Void. At that revelation, my soul blackened and stopped burning. I lost all my magical energy, and I became a Black Wind.

I killed Ruby. Shot her in the spine, through her stomach, so she couldn't run, then I decapitated her, taking all the power that had built up in her. With that power, I activated an amulet that turned me into a dragon, and ate Cerst before he could kill my family. Then I stole all his stuff, including an artifact called the Bag of Holding, which I could probably fit the entire island of Hokkaido into, if I tried. I also got Blackstone's egg, hatched that, and adopted him as my son. He could talk within three hours of hatching.

Anyways, I began to study the books I had stolen from Cerst. I learned the ways of the Black Wind, making contracts to get power instead of drawing it from within. Then… I learned about Blood Oaths. Unbreakable, powerful oaths that make it so you either follow the oath, or die. I felt guilty about killing Ruby, so I swore one to protect people who couldn't protect themselves. I had made a little stipulation that if I didn't know about it, I didn't have to do anything about it, and that I had a grace period to ignore the problem. I still had to try to protect them, before they were beyond help, but I could pause to plan, if necessary.

Let's see, there are a few incidents I feel I should mention… the Autumn Festival, when I was 13. I killed a man who was harassing Artemis, by hanging him from the rafters. I put too much slack in the rope, and it ended up decapitating him messily. When I was 14, I did a mercenary job for the first and last time. A man set attack dogs on me, which I killed and then force-fed him until his stomach ruptured, or he choked on meat, bone and vomit. One of those two. I ate the leftover dog. I discovered the Fae, nature spirits who love to screw over anyone and everyone, and managed to out-fox a few, establishing retainer contracts that gave me power without requiring me to actually do any work for it.

From there, I continued to cloister myself away in my room, studying lost magics from before the Great Undoing. The Great Undoing? Right, that's also called the Holocaust- yep, dawning comprehension. Every Chromata older than 30 died in the Great Undoing, and only one older than 20 survived. As it so happened, that was Cerst, who escaped to South America, and slowly went mad as he tried to reestablish the old Chromatic knowledge base. I kinda regret killing him, actually. But, what's done is done. And now, the greatest resource of magical knowledge is sitting there in a Texas apartment, completely unguarded by anyone. And the owner is a 16 year old sociopath.

The irony is staggering, I know. And the only dragon alive is being watched by a japanese landlady I barely know. I recognize exactly how reckless I'm being with such valuable and powerful artifacts, but honestly, nobody's out for my blood right now. I think.


	3. Writing Session

"Alright," Uzume said, reclining in her chair, and tapping her chin thoughtfully with a pencil. "does he have… a furry fetish?"

"Yeah, that one's pretty much canon." Horizon confirmed from across the table, a pencil tucked behind their ear and their long fingers flying across a keyboard. "After all, his first time was with a shapeshifting fox woman."

"Okay then, so I should put fox ears and a tail on Akitsu, and send her in?" Uzume asked, leaning forward.

"No, Akitsu knows better." Horizon dismissed with a shake of their head. "Since, y'know, what happened with Ruby was a traumatic memory."

"Shit. Right." Uzume muttered. "What about cat ears?"

"Mmm, maybe not." Horizon demurred. "He has a specific thing for canines. After all, they're man's best friend."

"But canine ears are hard to make visually distinct!" Uzume whined, slamming her empty hand down on the table. A few papers shuddered and moved. "They're either floppy and unsexy or they all look alike, including fox ears! Plus, isn't he colorblind or something?"

"No, Uzume, David is not colorblind." Horizon denied. "I am, but he's not. Just like how I'm of a healthy skin tone, and he is not. Anyways, if you want to tease him with one of his kinks, you'll have to use a different one. His furry fetish is a very touchy subject with him."

"Damn." Uzume muttered. "Can you just cut the crap and tell me what kinks he has? I can't get a good read on him, and Matsu's not helpful here."

"For someone who doesn't plan on having sex with him, you sure seem interested in giving David a boner." Horizon remarked. "Anyways, I can't really tell you. I don't have a list, so I just think about whether or not your suggestion is a good one. Now, please get back to work."

"I am working!" Uzume protested. "I'm trying to figure out how we're going to work in Kazehana, since she's also a lot like you, personality-wise."

"Then why are you asking about David's kinks?" Horizon asked, looking over their laptop screen to scrutinize their fellow author. "Also, it's easy. Have Kazehana show up at the Inn for initially unexplained reasons that become clearer as time passes."

"Nah, makes too much sense." Uzume said, while still writing that down. "Anyways. When do I get to do the big wardrobe thing? I've had it all planned out for a while now."

"Act 2." Horizon deadpanned. "Hey, if you don't mind me asking, what did you have planned for Akitsu's outfit?"

"Huh? Oh! I, uh, have a drawing in here…" Uzume began rifling through the stack of papers, before giving up. "It's basically what she has now, but fancier. More pleats and folds in the fabric, and some silver trim."

"Oh, silver. Nice choice." Horizon complimented. "I take it the White Rose on her back would be embroidered in with silver thread?"

"Yep." Uzume confirmed. "And I think I have the one for David… Since he used to wear a pea coat, and he has his military thing, I figured I'd make an admiral's uniform for him. Those frilly shoulder things and everything."

"Epaulets, I think they're called." Horizon contributed. "So, any plans for yourself?"

"Eh. I don't need fancy clothes." Uzume dismissed with a wave of her hand. "I just want to see other people wearing them."

"Incidentally, read over this part here." Horizon said, turning their laptop around. "Make sure this is entertaining."

Uzume scanned the screen for a moment, before she began snickering.

"Oh my god, David, you are a fucking menace." Uzume said while giggling. "Oh my god, it's just so gay, I can't handle it all."

"I'd say that's what she said, but I have an actual sense of humor." Horizon primly said.

"I just, I can't." Uzume said, giggling giving way to laughter. "I'm, I'm in a homosexual relationship… this is, this is too much! This is too gay for the actual lesbian!"

"So, it's good?" Horizon asked, sounding hopeful.

"Yeah, it's perfect." Uzume said, giving a thumbs up with one hand as she wiped away the tears with the other.


	4. Translation Conventions

"Hey folks, I'm Horizon the Transient, and today I'm gonna explain my translation conventions!" Horizon stood on the stage, still wearing their usual waistcoat, bowtie, and slacks. "See, translation is important. The story of Little Birds takes place in Japan, and so naturally everyone is speaking Japanese. However, that presents a problem, because I do not speak any Japanese at all. So, the text is presented in English, a language I do understand. However, many people argue over how much you should translate. And while I agree that translating names is not a good idea, I do not agree that honorifics and suffixes should remain in place.

"I do, however, leave in Japanese words if the speaker doesn't actually understand the meaning of the word, if they only know how to pronounce it, and the context it was used in. Matsu's 'tan' remains in place, even though she does know what it means, merely because she's using it to try and convey a tone. A childish tone, which she often drops for the sake of seriousness, thus making it easy to tell when she's being serious.

"Also, in some cases, there are Japanese words for things that show up, and I do not know how to translate those words, and so I just leave it in. Such as Adachi. Probably means something. I don't know what."

Horizon sighed, and walked off the stage. "Bye. Hope you learned something. I'm gonna go back to work, now.


End file.
